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In our class we are about thirty
and everyone brings a cake for his birthday,
although we sweat a lot each day
with all that sweet we'll put on weight
which to take ukemis is great
because we protect our bones,
fall very soft and stop our moans.

Long did I walk through winter woods, and slowly
did I see the snowflakes falling
and the sight did take me wholly
through the halls of long lost memories,
through the shadows of lost time.
And there, upon the cresting hill,
the sun came up, sublime.
And near the stream, where the old stone wall is,
who should I see, but noble Hollis...

There's more. It's kind of long for a haiku, but I'm proud of it!

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

Well, thanks, but it's just a toss off joke, really--a haiku with about 100 syllables....to point up something really missing the supposed form...

And "noble Hollis," of course, is the hillbilly who was named Hollis.....don't know who wrote that limerick...

But here's something serious, from about 1986:

TARGETS

Poets are places where lightning strikes:
not once, but again, and again.
Targets for luminous bolts of fire,
knowing each breath could be their last,
they fasten words of hope and truth
to pages, which burn with desire
to touch someone with beauty and vision,
to exorcise pain of the vast cataclysm,
to live in the limitless ocean of their dreams.
The true poets I have known have shown me
that all that endures is consumed.
Followed, themselves, by pillars of flame,
they burn into timeless beams.

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

Nice one. Most of my poetry tends to take the form of Rhyming couplets. But sometimes they are a bit more free form like this one.

When the very foundations,
That you stand upon,
Are shaken.
When the pillars
That support you
Begin to crumble,
And fade away.
Where then,
Do you turn for stability?
Turn inward
Turn inward
The calm heart
The very eye of the storm
Only there
Will you find a measure of true peace.

Of course we digress. This is supposed to be a thread about Limericks.

Have you noticed the aikiweb trend
discussions go on without end
Whether IP's a farce
or is that dude an arse?
And neither side willing to bend.